“I Had No Money at All to Make It Possible”

September 2025

Jahari Williams was raised by his grandmother in Maryland, and when he was in high school, he discovered a love of the French language and culture. “I was basically like Hermione Granger in all of my French classes—really motivated and working hard to master the subject,” he says. “I had this dream of visiting France someday.”

After submitting his mission papers, he secretly hoped to go to France, but instead was called to Tahiti—speaking French. And once he came to BYU, he threw himself back into his French studies with a lot more experience and even more vigor. He chose to major in international studies and minor in French.

“I’ve taken a French class basically every semester, and I’ve loved it,” he says. “I saw there was a study abroad program in France, and I really wanted to go, but I had no means to do it. I had no money at all to make it possible.”

When he spoke with humanities professor Daryl Lee about it, Williams learned about the Kennedy Center’s Global Opportunity Scholarship. “It’s very humbling to know that BYU is blessed with so many donors and investors—successful people who are aware of others and willing to help,” he says.

In France, Williams worked for Secours Catholique, a Catholic nonprofit north of Paris, helping French immigrants find resources to get on their feet.

“Before I went to France, I always saw immigrants and felt sympathy, like, ‘This is difficult, but if you just work harder, you’ll succeed,’” he says. “But looking these people in the eye and learning about the different barriers that immigrants have to deal with really shifted my perspective.

“When you come to a different country, there are lots of barriers that native-born people just don’t know anything about. [Immigrants] are not any less capable, and they have to work even harder. I realized that these are children of God, and we need to be welcoming to them as we would hope they’d be toward us if the situation were reversed.”

Williams said the experience “clarified [his] vision” for his academic studies and future career. He hopes to go to law school and perhaps work in diplomacy someday. Regardless of where he goes and what he does next, he’ll never forget his studies in France.

“Studying abroad can open your eyes so much,” he says. “We have a strong sense of patriotism in the United States, which is great. But when you learn a different language and culture, you’re able to see a new way of thinking. It can really enrich your understanding and increase your love and appreciation for people of cultures, ethnicities, and nationalities that are different from your own.”